Reach out...

Reach out and touch someone....  From 1979 through 1983, for those of us who remember those days, the phrase "reach out and touch someone" was an ad slogan for the  Bell System (aka AT&T).  It was based on the premise of the natural  human desire to communicate with others.  These days we don't  need a round dial we stick our finger in and crank, or a wall mounted, short curly corded phone to communicate.  We have so many  avenues, text, email, FaceBook, to name a few.  Communications are at lightening speeds.  However, I wonder if we are actually really  communicating and if so then WHAT are we actually communicating?  Authenticity seems lost.  Looking into anothers eyes seems almost  foreign and a bit intimidating.    I ran into a friend who has a very  strong "social media" presence, and asked him what he has been up  to of late.  His reply was "you obviously haven't been reading my  posts, or blogs, or you would know what I've been up to".  He said  this with all sincerity. Hmmmmm..... FB and texts and blogs are all a great way of spreading the word--  but my soul, my real communication center, has been feeling a bit  slighted lately.  It is having a hard time really "connecting" with others.   Sure, I blog, FB, text, email and tweet, but I long for the slow, face -to --face, look in your eyes, old fashioned way of knowing what is  going on... really going on with one another.  Even in yoga classes we  stagger our mats so we don't have to touch each other.  When I see someone, and even more strongly, when I touch someone, my soul  knows so much more about them than I could ever read in 130  characters or less.  The art of touch I fear is being lost in our society.  What with lawsuits and hyper-technology it is no wonder.  Am I a  neo-luditte?  Possibly, but I encourage you to be brave, dial into  someone's true communication center.  Reach out, really reach out  -- be it their arm, their shoulder, their hand or their soul --  and touch someone!